IT has been a season of controversy on the rugby front, but the lot is about to pale into insignifance.

Wales have suffered successive record defeats at the hands of Ireland, they have lost at home to Argentina for the first time and the 'Great Redeemer' Graham Henry has resigned.

Now comes the very real threat of a strike by the players or their withdrawal from the Wales team to face Scotland next month, which amounts to the same thing. Now I know what Newport owner Tony Brown was referring to almost a year ago when he took a call on his mobile phone.

The setting was the unlikely one of Pandy Park, Cross Keys, last May. Newport had just brought the curtain down on relegated Keys' final game in the Welsh/Scottish League and Brown was on the pitch when the call came through.

He drew big gasps of breath, seemed astounded and refused to comment. He gave a hint later, but clearly all that time ago the seeds were sown about forming a joint venture company with the resultant strike threat of today.

Coaches have come and gone, reports have been produced and cast aside, Wales have scaled the heights and plumbed the depths, but there has been nothing like this. Just imagine Wales taking the field without any players from Cardiff, Llanelli, Swansea and Newport, in particular.

Instead the match against Scotland will feature players from First Division clubs -- if the strike threat goes ahead.

And for those who harbour doubts, for those who believe it will not come to that they had better think again.

For the intent is very real. If the WRU fail to come up with the money the leading clubs insist they need to be on the same footing as their rivals from other countries it will all go pear-shaped.

The 'gang of six' say they are not bothered about the number of clubs competing at the top level and while they want reform of the WRU that is not a top priority either. It's all about money and the need for club benefactors to reduce their huge liabilities with greater funding from the WRU to match other countries.

All of that has provoked fury from clubs who perceive they will be outside the top flight if big changes go ahead.

Accusations of blackmail are flying around from Ebbw Vale director of rugby Ray Harris. And, indeed, it would be dreadful for clubs like Ebbw Vale and Neath to virtually go to the wall as a result of all this.

But it does not have to be this way. In our exclusive interview with WRU chief Glanmor Griffiths published yesterday and today he defends the system, his variety of positions in the game and a whole lot more.

You may consider that he argues in favour of the status quo remaining and that he generally waffles.

Surely it is wrong in this day and age with the vital need to get it right at the top and compete on a European level that the funding of the game is all wrong.

It can't be right that clubs down to Division Seven all receive cash from the WRU when Sir Tasker Watkins' report and others insist players should not be paid at all below premier level.

Maybe First Division players should be part-time, as now, but payments below that? Surely not.

More money can be found, of that there is no doubt. Salaries can be trimmed at the top flight as well, but it is not about greed on the part of a select few, more about being able to compete at every level of the game and being given the resources to do just that. There is uproar, even demands for heads to roll if Wales are badly beaten. Similarly there is an outcry if clubs fail to produce the goods in Europe.

So don't ask these teams to go in with one arm tied behind their backs. Give them the tools to do the job.

At least Glanmor Griffiths believes the way ahead is through the clubs, and for that we all have to be grateful.

It need not necessarily mean some, like Ebbw Vale, going to the wall. England manage to keep rather more afloat comfortably enough. Wales has to do the same. It is the eleventh hour without doubt, but all need not be lost -- if the WRU grasp the nettle.